the nation, because they are refunded by the extravagance
and luxury of those who are retained in the pay of the court; but
foreign wars threaten immediate destruction, since the money that is
spent in distant countries can never fall back into its former
channels, but is dissipated on the continent, and irrecoverably lost.

When this consideration is present to my mind, and, on this occasion,
no man who has any regard for himself or his posterity can omit it, I
cannot but think with horrour on a vote by which such prodigious sums
are wafted into another region: I cannot but tremble at the sound of a
tax for the support of a foreign war, and think a French army landed
on our coasts not much more to be dreaded than the annual payment to
which we appear now to be condemned, and from which nothing can
preserve us but the address which is now proposed.

By what arguments the commons were persuaded, or by what motives
incited to vote a supply for the support of this mercenary force, I
have not yet heard; nor, as a member of this house, my lords, was it
necessary for me to inquire. Their authority, though mentioned with so
much solemnity on this occasion, is to have no influence on our
determinations. If they are mistaken, it is more necessary for us to
inquire with uncommon caution. If they are corrupt, it is more
necessary for us to preserve our integrity. If we are to comply
blindly with their decisions, our knowledge and experience are of no
benefit to our country, we only waste time in useless solemnities, and
may be once more declared useless to the publick.

The commons, my lords, do not imagine themselves, nor are imagined by
the nation, to constitute the legislature. The people, when any
uncommon heat prevails in the other house, disturbs their debates, and
overrules their determinations, have been long accustomed to expect
redress and security from our calmer counsels; and have considered
this house as the place where reason and justice may be heard, when,
by clamour and uproar, they are driven from the other. On this
occasion, my lords, every Briton fixes his eye upon us, and every man
who has sagacity enough to discover the dismal approach of publick
poverty, now supplicates your lordships, by agreeing to this address,
to preserve him from it.

Then the SPEAKER spoke to the following purport:--My lords, having
very attentively observed the whole progress of this important debate,
and considered with the utmost